"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Looking-Glass Doctrines

Via Andrew Sullivan, this story on the Catholic hierarchy's latest exercise of "moral guidance":

A nun and administrator at a Catholic hospital in Phoenix has been reassigned and rebuked by the local bishop for agreeing that a severely ill woman needed an abortion to survive.

Sister Margaret McBride was on an ethics committee that included doctors that consulted with a young woman who was 11 weeks pregnant late last year, The Arizona Republic newspaper reported on its website Saturday. The woman was suffering from a life-threatening condition that likely would have caused her death if she hadn't had the abortion at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center.

Sullivan's comment is apt:

Funny how quickly they can act if a woman is deemed to have in good conscience saved a life, and how slowly they move when a man rapes a child

I'm continually appalled by the incoherence of the Church's moral teachings.  That's the only word I can think of to describe it -- there really doesn't seem to be a consistent foundation for the hierarchy's pronouncements on various aspects of "morality" (quite aside from the rather primitive idea of what constitutes moral behavior).  Is it any wonder that the Church finds its authority eroding?

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